Adventures of a wife, mom, personal trainer, and certified yoga teacher, with a passion for living a healthy, natural, balanced, and transparent life without borders. All things life, love, food, fitness, marriage, parenthood, and lots of YOGA!<3

What? She cooks?

I’m just sitting here in bed looking like the epitome of pregnant. Just try to handle this picture for a minute: Snoogle propped up so I can lean back and type, rocking my Mumu( and loving it), and drinking a glass of chocolate almond milk to help with the late night heartburn this third trimester has decided to grace me with.

I wanted to share a few fun recipes with you tonight.

First off, I love fall. It’s my second favorite season; summer being my first (beach girl at heart forever). And with fall, I love anything pumpkin flavored. So, when the pumpkin spice latte came early to Starbucks this year, I was all over that! Well, today, I was doing my daily…I mean weekly…shopping at Target and decided I wanted it cold, and in frappe form. Now, as much as I love the infamous PSL, I don’t like all the extra sugar, fat, and calories that tend to come with it. So, when I can’t make my own at home (sorry no recipe for that one tonight), then I had to figure out a way to get it from Starbucks without all the unnecessary “extras” in it. Here’s just a few little tips that go for any of the highly doctored and dessert like coffee’s:

Find out how many pumps of the flavoring they put in the size you are getting. You will be shocked, BELIEVE me. No one needs 4 shots of pumpkin sugar syrup in a TALL–seriously!? Try one or two, you might actually be able to taste the coffee. 😉

Next, make it non-fat milk. I personally can’t wait for the day that Starbucks decides to get with it and carry almond milk because personally, cows milk is just a no-no in my diet. It should be a no-no in everyone’s, but that’s their choice. However, if it’s once in a blue moon, it’s not the end of the world. There are a lot worse things.

And last, no whip! I know, I love it too, but you’ll be surprised how you can train your taste buds. Before you know it, you like it better without. *sometimes it’s okay to splurge though–I do.

For the preggies out there like me, go ahead and make it decaf if you’re watching caffeine intake.

Last little tip that I like to do. Bring a scoop of your protein in a baggie with you and ask them to blend it in. You have just “healthified” your drink. Don’t you feel good already?

Next thing I want to share with y’all is what I cooked for dinner tonight. Yes, yes I the wife ACTUALLY cooked. In our house, my husband is the dinner cook. I like to bake, that’s my thing, or do breakfast. I love breakfast and can make a mean omelet. But, when it comes to dinner, my husband gets home from work and goes to work in the kitchen–and loves it. He’s my chef, and the arrangement works great because I just don’t find pleasure in cooking dinner. I do find pleasure in watching him bust out a meal though…he’s so good at it. But, occasionally, I get in a mood–thanks Pinterest–and I find a recipe like this one below, and before you know it, I’m all over it in the kitchen. Anything that uses a crock pot is on the top of my list because, it’s normally pretty simple and basically does the work for you. Hmmm…I still am pretty lazy when it comes to dinner apparently…

I replaced the sauce that you make with Greek yogurt instead of using regular, plain yogurt. By straining it like they want you to, you are basically doing that to it anyway, so since Greek is all I keep in the house, this made it easier once again.

P.S. immediately after this picture I shoveled off over half the sauce I put on my poor husbands pita…see, this is why I don’t do dinner. I was just scooping away….Lord have mercy!

Lastly, I featured my sister and her blog in my previous post. She is doing the Fall Foodie Challenge–a 20 day challenge for people to send in their favorite healthy fall recipe that won’t set us back in our fitness goals, but that doesn’t sacrifice taste. Well, it’s my turn. Like I mentioned above, I love breakfast with all my heart and soul and I never skip it! I might even venture to say that while I love a good Thanksgiving dinner, the breakfast that we have in our family almost tops it…that’s how much I love it. So, it wouldn’t be my Fall recipe if it wasn’t healthy or breakfast-y. Let me know when you make these. I haven’t made these myself yet, so I’m so excited to try it. I love regular cinnamon rolls so much, so I can only imagine what part of Heaven these will be. I would love your feedback or things that you substituted/changed to better fit your needs, or even found made them taste better. Seriously, it’s 11 o’ clock, and I want one!

Photo credit and recipe goes to the the author of the blog below where I discovered this recipe. (I wish I was cool enough to made this up on my own)

Heat the almond milk and the Earth Balance together in a small pan on the stove over low/medium heat until the Earth Balance melts and the milk is warm to the touch. Remove from heat, let cool a little (temperature should be around 100 degrees—like warm bath water. If it’s hotter than that, the yeast will die and the rolls won’t rise!) sprinkle in the yeast and stir so yeast will dissolve. Let yeast mixture sit for five minutes (it will look very creamy after a few minutes).

Meanwhile, combine the pumpkin and chia mixture (when you combine the chia seeds and water be sure to let the mixture sit for five minutes to gel a little bit). In another bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin. Pour in yeast.

Knead dough by hand for about 10 minutes or with a KitchenAid for six on medium speed with either a paddle attachment or dough hook. The dough should be smooth and elastic when you’re done.

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a dishcloth and set in a warm area to rise for 1 hour 15 minutes. While the dough is rising, mix together the softened Earth Balance, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Remove dough and punch dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to a large rectangle and spread brown sugar mixture on top keeping an inch bare around the sides. Gently roll up dough so it resembles a log. Slice dough into 1/2 inch slices and place in a greased 9-inch casserole dish. Cover with a dishcloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 25 minutes. Let cool while you make the glaze.

For the glaze, mix together the powdered sugar, almond milk and vanilla extract. If glaze seems too runny, add a little more powdered sugar. Place glaze in a small plastic bag and snip the tip off. Make swirls over the cooled rolls and serve.

Time:

3 hours

Well, that’s all for the adventure tonight. Hope you were able to take away some good tips for modifying your Starbucks drinks, maybe having your dinner for tomorrow already set, or your mouth is watering because you can’t wait to bake these scrumptious yummies above. I know mine is…

In the meantime, stay healthy, stay happy, and stay ready for the next blog.